How to fill a new Habitat?

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "panamabob"

> Im curious about the financing up to that point? What would be
> servicing that debt during this long construction period of high
> cost construction? Would the inhabitants be in servitude on a long
> term bond, say like a 50 year or longer for payback? How will that
> affect the excitement of thefreedom of living on a new world? What
> parrallels can we draw from British colonizing and Spanish
> activities in the Americas?

I don't think we should be thinking of the financing in terms of a
homeowner mortgage model. When you buy a home you're just buying a
place to live, not investing in a productive asset.

If you had to apportion the hundreds of billions to trillions of
dollars that these Habitats will cost just to the number of
homeowners, I don't think the deal would ever find an orbit, or for
us Earthlings, it would nevr get off the ground.

But by enabling wealth to be created in orbit, the Habitat debt can
be considered almost like national debt or development bonds. If you
borrow a $100 million to place a long bridge across the bay and
thereby open the land for housing, commerce, mineral exploitation,
etc, you allow for more wealth to be created other than just from
land sales. The city now can house more people, collect more taxes,
etc.

I wouldn't think of SPS pricing to be simply the aggregation of
price inputs based on terrestrial prices. The upper bound on SPS
pricing will be substitute goods from Earth. The costs below that
will account for the infrastructure in orbit and the cost of steel,
silicon and other goods will be more expensive because they'll be
carrying the cost of building outposts and Habitats and other
infrastructure - because without the infrastructure no wealth
creation will be possible.

So, in a sense, I think that residential land will in fact be
subsidized by the industries that need to have workers in orbit.
Selling land to rich tourists shouldn't have that subsidy and they
should pay full frieght.

Also, once things get going, we may find that new Habitats may be
financed via a retirement model. Right now Social Security is a pay
as you go model. Perhaps in orbit, the model may be that one Habitat
pays for another to be built, and the land sales and industrial base
of the new Habitat will finance the retirements of the people from
the first Habitat. Or something like that.

TangoMan